The Queen of Carnage

by Wright, Candice

  Although it wasn’t my aim, the hostility of the moment seems to have ebbed a little. Orion rolls his eyes at me but I don’t miss the quirk of his lips. I guess he’s figured out if I can crack jokes, I really am all right.

  “Let’s take this inside,” Gage barks out before turning on his heel and heading in.

  I walk with Viper and Zero toward the clubhouse doors. I spot Rebel, Inigo, Half-pint, and Agro standing guard but nobody follows us inside. I guess they are there in case the rest of the Chaos Demons decide to descend on us.

  Walking into the dimly-lit room, my eyes are drawn to the red smears on the floor. Someone has tried to clean up but they've done a piss-poor job. I freeze, staring at the stain. Replaying King’s death over in my brain, I’m trying to figure out what I should have done differently when I feel a hand on my face. I look up into Viper’s worried eyes before Gage yells from across the room.

  “Get your fucking hands off my woman,” his voice booms, vibrating over my skin.

  Viper ignores him for a second, watching me. “You okay?” I just nod and swallow. He swings his head around to look at my guys, his face like thunder. “Are you fucking kidding me?” His voice is sharp and angry, surprising Gage. I look over at Halo and Orion who are watching us with a look of confusion. Behind them is Diesel and two guys I don’t recognize but even from here I can sense the animosity pouring off them.

  “You claim to love this woman so much you dragged her back in here without even cleaning up first. You’re fucking lucky she’s as strong as she is. Most bitches I know would have been a fucking wreck by now,” Viper shouts at them.

  “Well, we didn’t have time for a fucking clean, you know, what with having to remove two corpses and all.” I flinch at Gage’s words, making him swear.

  “Make fucking time,” Zero states from beside me.

  Gage looks at me with remorse in his eyes.

  “Can we just get shit sorted out, please?” I ask quietly.

  Halo indicates the large table in the back so we follow him over. Viper takes a seat and pulls me gently down onto his lap. Orion reaches out to grab me but Halo holds him back. Zero sits beside us, twirling a strand of my hair between his fingers again.

  We wait for all the others to sit before Viper speaks. “I think Luna should go first,” he says, his tone even.

  Before anyone can protest, I recall what happened. “King and I came over to the compound thinking you guys might have been finished. Stacey and Gecko were arguing about something. The next thing you know, she’s pulling a gun—Wait, where is Stacey?” I ask, remembering her for the first time.

  “Well, here I am. Miss me?” We all turn at the sound of her nasal voice. Her nose and eyes are black and swollen. I might have been able to drag up a little bit of sympathy for her if she didn’t have a gun pointed at Megan’s head.

  Every single person at the table, including Viper and Zero, pull out and point their guns at Stacey. I watch her face pale and see her swallow hard. At least the crazy bitch isn’t too far gone to realize the danger she’s in. Why the fuck she didn’t just run when she had the chance, I don’t know.

  “What the fuck, Stacey?” Diesel asks.

  “She's here to tell you everything that went down,” she bites out, eyes on me. “But she’s a fucking liar. She’s playing you all. You’re just too blind to see it.”

  Huh? So this is her game plan. Okay, I’ll bite.

  “Everything started going to shit when she got here, not before.” She carries on, making me snort. I remember Gecko telling me the same thing. Surprise, surprise.

  I bait her. “Losing Orion, Halo, and Gage’s cocks shouldn’t really be enough to turn you into a homicidal maniac now, should it? I mean, they’re good, but good enough to go on a killing spree? Seems a little extreme to me.”

  “Shut the fuck up, whore. You’re no better than me, spreading your legs for everyone.”

  “I spread them for the three men I love. Count them with me, one, two, three. I’m thinking your number has a couple of zeros at the end of it. Even so, I actually wouldn’t have had an issue with you if you hadn’t made one. I didn’t hold any ill will toward you because these three fucked around. That’s on them, not you. Until you tried to hurt me, that is.”

  “It’s not about them. They’re nothing. Joker was my man. He loved me but you took him from me.” The gun shakes against Megan’s head, making her eyes go wide.

  “This is about Joker claiming me as his old lady,” I summarize. “Stacey, he never wanted me, he wanted to hurt me and hurt this club. That’s all he wanted to do for a long time.”

  She turns her head to Orion, ignoring me as she plays her hand. “She’s working with the Chaos Demons. Gecko and I found out about it. We were arguing about getting you out of church to tell you but Gecko said to wait. We didn’t hear her and King come in but she heard us talking about her and so did King. He went to pull his gun but she was quicker. She shot King, then Gecko.” She stands there giving a pretty convincing story as the tears run down her face.

  “I was so scared, I froze, then she hit me in the face with the gun. When I woke up, King and Gecko were dead and I just knew it had been part of her plan all along. She was going to frame me, which is exactly what she was going to do now, when I walked in.”

  “That story would have been more believable if you weren’t holding a gun to my sister’s head,” Diesel barks at her.

  “I just needed you to hear me out before she had me declared guilty,” she pleads. I see the two strangers at the table turn to face me suspiciously but I ignore them, focusing on my own men as I speak.

  “Well, if that’s true, you don’t need Megan anymore, right? You’ve said your piece like you wanted so you can let Megan go.”

  She snorts. “What, so you can shoot me? I don’t think so.” I raise both hands in the air to show her they’re empty and use my fingers to do a quick signal to Megan.

  “I’m unarmed, see?”

  “Right, like you were unarmed last time too, huh?” She freezes when she realizes what she said. Before she can react, I nod and Megan throws her elbow into Stacey's throat, making her drop to her knees gasping for air. Diesel stands to grab her but he didn’t count on a pissed off Megan grabbing her by the hair and punching her over and over until Stacey is sobbing on the floor. Diesel pulls a still swinging Megan away and holds her tight while he waits for her to calm down.

  “Is it always this exciting here?” Zero asks me, bringing everyone's attention back to us.

  “Apparently so. Anyway, as I was saying, Stacey pulled a gun, Gecko charged her and knocked her out. We thought we were okay after that but then he turned the gun on me.”

  I take a breath and search out Diesel’s eyes, needing him to hear this.

  “King stepped in front of me, he saved me. I pulled my gun and shot Gecko until I ran out of bullets. I tried to stop King’s bleeding but there was just so much. He… he told me to tell you both he loved you and he was sorry. I don’t remember much else until these two showed up and kidnapped me. I’m getting really sick of getting kidnapped, by the way,” I tell everyone, rubbing my temples.

  “What the fuck were you doing here, anyway?” mysterious guy number one grates out.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Zero asks him, looking him up and down.

  The man stands up but the guy next to him grips his arm. “Bates,” he warns.

  Bates? Oh shit, he’s the VP of the mother chapter, which means the other guy must be—

  “I’m Priest, this is Bates. We are the president and VP of the mother chapter of Carnage.”

  Zero nods his head respectfully at that, making them, Halo, and Orion look at each other.

  “We got a call from Gecko saying you guys had decided, with King getting sick, you wanted to initiate a peace treaty between the two clubs. Gecko was in our pocket. As much as he tried to be loyal to your club, he had a gambling problem that was out of control. He took payments from Chaos to look the other
way when some of your gun shipments went missing. So, you see, we had no reason not to trust him. We knew he couldn’t say shit about us without incriminating himself but when we got here, we realized he had set us up.”

  “That’s the bit I don’t get. How could he have known me and King were coming over in the first place?”

  Stacey sits up, holding her ribs and wincing. “He didn’t. He planned to take you out at King’s place, figuring it would be safer in case church came out early. He cut the security feed, shot the prospect on the gate and we were making our way over to the cottage when we saw you here. It wasn’t part of the plan. He fucked it all up. I didn’t have anywhere else to go and he knew it but he refused to make me his old lady. Well, you know the rest.”

  I stare at her, surprised she spilled all that.

  “If I tell you everything I know, will you let me go?” She looks at Diesel but he looks away.

  “Sure,” I tell her, ignoring the guys.

  “That’s not your call to make, Luna,” Orion protests but I ignore him in favor of Stacey.

  “You know I can get my brothers to relocate you anywhere you want but I never want to see your face again.”

  She nods rapidly.

  “Gecko was going to do the drop-off tonight to collect the guns. He was going to shoot Kibble, take the guns, and sell them himself. He figured if he paid off his debts, he wouldn’t have to accept the pay-outs from the Chaos Demons anymore. Everyone that knew about the deal would be dead and his secret would be safe.”

  “He didn’t kill you,” I point out

  “I know but we both know he would have if you hadn’t gotten him first.” I nod, knowing she’s right. Gecko couldn’t afford to keep her alive after that, especially not when she had already threatened to take him down.

  “Which brings us to you,” Halo says, looking at Viper and Zero. “What do you think you’re gonna get out of this? I have to say, taking our girl was the dumbest thing you could have done.”

  “Or the smartest,” Zero answers. “Tell me, Halo, what would you have done if you walked out from that room and found me and Viper standing over a crying Luna and two dead MC members?”

  Halo’s jaw ticks but he doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to—the answer is obvious. They would have slaughtered them before they had been given a chance to explain.

  “Fine. I’ll concede that point but what do you want now? I can tell this is more about what you can gain from this situation than you dropping Luna off and explaining yourself. You want something,” Orion tells him shrewdly.

  “We want a truce,” Zero tells him.

  Diesel laughs out loud at that. “A truce with the club that killed my mother and maimed my sister? You must be out of your fucking minds.”

  “Nope. We’re deadly serious. What happened with your mother had nothing to do with us. Fuck, we weren’t even in the country the majority of the time she was there. We met her once but even then it was only in passing. She never really socialized.”

  “Yeah, I guess getting raped repeatedly will make you kind of anti-social,” I translate Megan’s rapid signing as she stands next to Diesel.

  “What?” Viper looks to me in horror.

  “How much time did you actually spend at the clubhouse?” I ask him.

  “We lived with our mothers but came around for family shit. There was only a handful of kids in the MC back then and only a couple close to our age. We prospected early at sixteen, for two years. They allowed it, knowing we were enlisting. They wanted us fully patched when we came home. We just didn’t expect to come back to the president’s and VP’s patch.”

  “Melinda was one of the club whores, right?” Zero asked, making the temperature of the room turn frigid.

  Megan starts signing again so I tell them what she’s saying.

  “She was taken as a pawn in a game she never agreed to play. She was a weapon and a toy, used and abused and she took it all to keep me safe. She killed him, you know? Your uncle. She shot him in the face point-blank. I only wish he had suffered for longer, like she had.” Her chest is rising and falling rapidly now. Diesel pulls her in for a hug, wrapping her up protectively like only a big brother can do.

  “Melinda was Orion, Diesel, and Megan’s mom. King, Orion, and Diesel's father was under the impression she left to be with John when, in fact, he took her while she was shopping.”

  “What?” Viper appears shocked. He turns to look at Zero who seems just as surprised as he is.

  “She was locked up until she had Megan. Then they used threats against Megan’s safety to keep her in line.”

  “And your father never came for her?” Viper looks incredulous

  “Yes, well, apparently Joker was very convincing. He had my father believing she ran away and was happy with the Chaos Demons. It’s one of the many reasons our clubs stayed away from each other,” Orion tells him, a slight mocking tone to his voice.

  “Joker! That man was a fucking waste of space,” Zero spits out. “He didn’t do anything he couldn’t gain something from. So what was in it for him?”

  “With the double-crossing? Access to more money through the drugs your club runs. With regards to Melinda? It was nothing but spite that motivated him. He was given free rein to use Melinda’s body and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it,” Gage explains.

  Viper looks up at Megan and shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I have a vague memory of a little girl with dark curls but you must have been about eight. I think it was the day we were leaving for boot camp. Like I said, we didn’t really interact with the kids much but most of them were familiar. You, I couldn’t place, but I didn't think much of it at the time.” I can see her reading his lips so I don’t bother to sign.

  “So we’re cousins?” he asks looking, dare I say it, disappointed. I guess having family in a rival club will put a monkey wrench in the works.

  “No, thankfully. John wasn’t my father, Joker was,” I tell them for her, watching her fingers shake a little as she signs.

  Zero breathes out beside me. “Thank fuck for that.”

  “Okay, here it is. Viper and I are new to this. I’m not gonna lie, this has turned into a bigger clusterfuck than either of us predicted but the truth remains the same. We want a truce. I have enough rot within my own club to sort out by the sound of things without having to worry about retaliation from outside the MC too.”

  “How the fuck do you expect us to call a truce with the Chaos Demons after all the shit they’ve pulled?” Diesel barks out, understandably pissed.

  “I expect you to figure it out from a president and VP point of view and not as grieving sons. I get it, I do, but we didn’t wrong your club, John and Joker did. They're gone and you can't hold us accountable for our families’ sins without holding yourselves accountable to yours,” Viper points out, and I hate to say it but he’s right.

  Everyone is silent. Even Stacey has stopped crying, clearly anticipating the gravity of the moment.

  Orion, Diesel, Priest, and Bates turn their backs on us for a second while they discuss but Halo and Gage never take their eyes away from me. I can’t make out their words but I can hear Diesel’s angry, harsh whispering.

  Finally, they turn back to face us, their faces grim but resigned that this is the best thing for both clubs’ futures.

  “Fine. You have your truce.” Orion leans over the table to shake but Viper shakes his head, making me frown. Isn’t this what he wanted?

  “It’s not going to be quite that easy, I’m afraid. You see, as much as I want this, I don’t trust a single one of you to keep your word.” The table erupts into growls of anger.

  “You can bitch all you want but don’t lie to me and pretend you trust me either. It needs to be earned on both sides and that shit takes time.”

  “Well, what the fuck are you proposing then?” Bates finally finds his voice, clearly reaching the end of his rope.

  “We want Megan,” he tells them softly, only to fi
nd every gun in the room aimed at him. Well, except the one now pointed back at me. Fucking hell.

  “No. My sister is not for sale and she’ll never set foot back in that hell hole,” Diesel grinds out adamantly.

  “If your sister is there, I know you won’t do anything stupid like burn my compound to the ground,” Viper replies, unfazed by the guns cocked and ready to kill him.

  Diesel grins evilly at him. “It won’t stop me from slitting your throat while you sleep.”

  “Then I guess she’ll have to sleep beside me now, huh?” Viper antagonizes him.

  “Enough. Megan’s not going anywhere so ask for something else,” I demand.

  “I’ll go,” Stacey pipes up from the floor.

  “We are trying to get them to not bomb the compound. You get that, right?” Zero tells her sarcastically.

  “It’s Megan or Luna. They are the only things you guys give a shit about. I’m not sure about anything other than how much you care for them. Until the allegiance can be trusted, I would like one of them to be my guest. I’m asking nicely but this isn’t a request. This is a requirement,” Viper says coolly. Orion and Diesel stand and I can see this spinning wildly out of control. I stare at Megan who has tears in her eyes.

  “We’ll take our chances. Get the fuck out of my clubhouse. We don’t use our women as bargaining chips,” Orion tells him, his face hard and unyielding.

  I swallow down the wave of love I feel for him, for all of them, and for the first time I feel truly protected by Carnage. It’s just not going to be enough. These guys are right, the Chaos Demons will never trust a treaty on the words of the two new Kings of Carnage. My baby deserves to grow up safe. I don’t want to have to keep worrying about kidnapping attempts and shoot-outs. But I will never ask this of Megan, not after everything she has endured at their hands.

  “I’ll go,” I say in a quiet voice. Viper’s body goes solid beneath me at my words.

  His voice is soft and tinged with remorse when he says, “No, Luna, you know you can’t.”